By Michiel van Elk, Associate Professor, Cognitive Psychology, Leiden University
Psychedelic therapy often promises transcendent mystical experiences. But research suggests context and expectation may matter more than the trip itself.
(Full Story)
|
By Steven Gillespie, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, University of Liverpool
Psychopaths might account for only about 1% of the general population, but they account for a disproportionate share of violent crime.
Distinct from other conditions like sociopathy and antisocial personality disorder, psychopaths tend to show traits such as an absence of remorse or guilt, a lack of empathy and a charming and manipulative interpersonal style.
You may find it hard to imagine how someone without much empathy can change. And early psychological treatments were not successful. But advances in research are showing that a deeper understanding of psychopathy…
(Full Story)
|
By Nicole Whitworth, Lecturer in Linguistics, School of Education, Language and Psychology, York St John University
Talking is one of the most complex actions the human body performs, yet the process of turning thoughts into speech is coordinated on millisecond timescales. For some children, the brain struggles to plan the movements needed for speech, turning everyday conversation into hard work. Even forming a single word can affect learning, friendships and confidence.
UK guidance suggests around one in ten children experience some form of speech, language or communication difficulty,…
(Full Story)
|
By Sam Illingworth, Professor of Creative Pedagogies, Edinburgh Napier University
Most AI training teaches you how to get outputs. Write a better prompt. Refine your query. Generate content faster. This approach treats AI as a productivity tool and measures success by speed. It misses the point entirely.
Critical AI literacy asks different questions. Not “how do I use this?” but “should I use this at all?” Not “how do I make this faster?” but “what am I losing when I do?”
AI systems carry biases that most users never see. Researchers…
(Full Story)
|
By James Clark, Professor of Medieval History, University of Exeter
Henry VIII is not remembered as a loving husband. Any English schoolchild can recount the unpleasant fates of most of his six wives with the rhyme: “Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.” But though the end of his relationships are famous, less is known about Henry in love.
Now, a rare jewel discovered by an amateur detectorist and bought by the British Museum for the national collection may force us to reconsider the king’s brutal…
(Full Story)
|
By Bert Johnson, Professor of Political Science, Middlebury College
|
By Liam Cole Young, Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies and Co-Director of the School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University
Sports betting isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Understanding how we got here, who the players are and what’s at stake are necessary for the future of sport.
(Full Story)
|
By David Mead, Professor of UK Human Rights Law, University of East Anglia
The High Court has ruled that the UK government’s proscription of the group Palestine Action was unlawful. This is a welcome decision for advocates of free speech and the right to protest, but it is not the end of this story.
Organisations can be proscribed (banned) if the home secretary believes they are “concerned in terrorism” under the definition…
(Full Story)
|
By Jack Shelbourn, Senior Lecturer and Director of Photography, University of Lincoln
The Bafta film awards are brilliant at making film feel like it matters. The clothes, the cameras, the applause, the shared cultural moment. That spectacle is the point.
But it also has a climate shadow. Not just from the night itself, but from the behaviour it effectively rewards and normalises in the weeks around it.
Here’s the awkward truth: the biggest carbon impact in film and TV isn’t the red carpet. It’s travel. And awards season is, in effect, a celebration of travel.
Industry data backs this up. Bafta Albert is the film and TV industry’s sustainability…
(Full Story)
|
By Jessica Irving, Associate Professor in Global Seismology, University of Bristol
Elizabeth Day, Senior Teaching Fellow in Geophysics, Imperial College London
When we dream of landscapes, we might imagine rolling valleys or rugged mountains. But there is a whole landscape hidden from human view: the secret world of the seafloor.
Half of Earth’s oceans are more than 3.2km deep. Beneath them lie cavernous plains untouched by sunlight, vast gaping trenches made by Earth’s tectonic plates shifting, and ranges of underwater mountains on which no human has ever set foot.
We have better maps of the surface…
(Full Story)
|